Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A Nation Divided, Then and Now

By Alan
Caruba

It is fair
to say that the nation is as divided today as it was in the decades leading up
to the Civil War that came about by the decision to secede and thereby destroy
the Union. The seeds of that decision were planted in the Constitution because
of the compromises that were needed to secure its ratification by the states.

The
Founders, many of whom were slave owners at a time when slave labor was
necessary to the economy of the south and existed in the north as well, In his
new book, “A Disease In the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought
the Civil War”, historian Thomas Fleming provides a context of the nation’s
earliest years, noting that “Long before the first slaves arrived in the
English colony of Virginia in 1619, slavery was a thriving institution in the
New World…Few people criticized or objected to slavery; it was one of the
world’s oldest social institutions with roots in ancient Babylon, Greece and
Rome.”

It is an
irony of U.S. history that the Revolution “had ended in the creation of a
slave-owning republic devoted to freedom, liberty, and equality.” A
contradiction to be sure.

At the
heart of cause of the Civil War was the growing fear among white southerners
who were vastly outnumbered by the slave population on whom their economy
depended. Events like the Nat Turner slave insurrection and the slaughter of
whites in Haiti fanned these fears. This was an era before mechanization
eliminated the need for slave labor, but ironically it was the invention of the
cotton gin that separated seeds from fiber that led to the rise of “King
Cotton” and the wealth it produced. As Fleming notes, “Congress was aware that
Americans north and south had been involved with slavery for over a century,
and had profited immensely from it.”

The rise
of the abolition movement would lead to the Civil War as those opposed to
slavery and those dependent on it divided sharply, resulting in secession
by the southern states. By then the north and the south cordially hated one
another.

The issues
that divide the nation today are quite different, but they are tied to the
Constitution which many see as having been abandoned and trashed. Like the
decades leading up to the Civil War, the process has a long history, primarily
reaching back over the past century in which the central government assumed
increasing power over the states, instituting the income tax, the Federal
Reserve, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Departments of Energy,
Environment, Housing,and Education, along a mountain of regulation affecting
all aspects of our lives.

The passage
of Obamacare which nationalizes 16% of the nation’s economy is bringing the
nation to the brink of rebellion. More than half of the states have filed suits
against it and passed laws resisting its implementation. The same state that
led seccession in1860, South Carolina, is leading the opposition to it.

Another
constitutional issue, the protection of the Second Amendment, is generating a
similar response. Millions of Americans are rallying around this constitutional freedom.

The debate
about immigration is a third leg of the stool as Americans grow fearful over
the failure of the federal government to protect its southern border from
millions of illegal aliens in our midst (not unlike southern fears of its black
population), the costs of public services, and the implications of
enfranchising them, shifting political power to the Democratic Party which is
responsible for Obamacare and other social programs draining the public
treasury.

It is
surely an irony of history that a majority of voters have now twice elected the
first black President of the nation, initially responding to his message of
“hope and change” until that change manifested itself as the socialism that has
led some European nations to the brink of bankruptcy. Half the voters now
see his administration as a threat to their freedoms and are being joined by others who are beginning to see
the lies surrounding the attack in Benghazi (on September 11, 2012, the
anniversary of 9/11) as an impeachable offense.

Adding to
the fears driving Americans is the threat of militant Islam which dramatically
altered public opinion after 9/11 in 2001 and the most recent bombings in
Boston.

In ways
that reflect the divisions and fears of the years leading up to the Civil War,
the current era is filled with concern for the integrity of the Constitution.
It has led to the creation of the Tea Party movement and revelations that the
IRS has specifically audited organizations identified as conservative,
patriotic or pro-Israel have only added to those fears. The Supreme Court
decision regarding Obamacare is an error as great as the Dred Scott decision
that prolonged slavery.

It is a
cliché that history repeats itself but that is because it is true. The issues
have changed, but fears for the sovereignty of the states, the viability of the
economy, and the sanctity of our Bill of Rights (insisted upon by the states
before ratification) lie at the heart of our current national mood.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.